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Asian Culture Booklist
for Children and Teens |
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Here are some of our favorite books that depict Asian cultures for children and teens. The teen selections on this list include both middle and high school titles.
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The Paper Kingdom
by Helena Ku Rhee
Accompanying his parents to their night-shift jobs as office cleaners, young Daniel reluctantly joins in as they use their imaginations to transform the deserted building into a magnificent paper kingdom where he might one day rule.
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I Am Golden
by Eva Chen
This moving ode to the immigrant experience, as well as a manifesto of self-love for Chinese American children, is a jubilant celebration of accepting who you are.
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Watercress
by Andrea Wang
A little girl traveling through Ohio in an old car helps her family collect muddy, snail-covered watercress from a ditch in the wild before learning the story of her immigrant heritage and how foraging for fresh food helps her loved ones stay together.
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I Am a Bird
by Hope Lim
A bird-loving little girl gazes at the feathered friends she passes during daily rides to school on the back of her father’s bike, before discovering what a feared elderly lady and she share in common.
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Eyes That Kiss in the Corners
by Joanna Ho
A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers but by drawing from the strength of the powerful women in her life, she recognizes her own beauty and discovers a path to self-love and empowerment.
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Tiny Feet Between the Mountains
by Hanna Cha
Struggling through her daily chores because of her tiny size, a young Korean girl in a village of large people devises a clever plan to help a spirit tiger who has swallowed the sun by mistake.
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When the Cousins Came
by Katie Yamasaki
A sensitive story about insecurity, hosting and friendship follows the experiences of a girl from a multicultural family who is ecstatic to be visited by her cousins only to be disappointed when they have very different interests and skill sets.
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One Year in Beijing
by Xiaohong Wang
Eight-year-old Ling Ling, who lives in Beijing, China, describes a year of her life there, focusing on important places, festivals, food, and family.
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No Kimchi for Me
by Aram Kim
Teased by her brothers for her dislike of the strong-smelling, pickled cabbage Korean condiment known as Kimchi, little Yoomi tries to force down her portions by hiding them in favorite foods until her grandmother teaches her how to make kimchi pancakes, in a story complemented by a recipe and back matter.
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Clues to the Universe
by Christina Li
As friends Ro and Benji face bullying, grief, and their own differences, they must try to piece together clues to some of the biggest questions in the universe.
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When You Trap a Tiger
by Tae Keller
Moving with her parents into the home of her sick grandmother, young Lily forges a complicated pact with a magical tiger, in a story inspired by Korean folktales.
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Room to Dream
by Kelly Yang
While visiting family in China, Mia Tang witnesses some of the big changes the country is going through, which makes her think about the changes in her own life that need to be dealt with.
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The Last Fallen Star : A Gifted Clans Novel
by Graci Kim
Looking forward to her older sister’s initiation into their family’s powerful lineage of healing witches, an adopted Korean American girl born without magic triggers unexpected consequences while attempting to participate in her sister’s ceremony.
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View from Pagoda Hill
by Michaela MacColl
Ning, a Chinese American girl, struggles to find her place in the world and is forced to leave her home in Shanghai to go to America with a father she barely knows.
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A Glasshouse of Stars
by Shirley Marr
Moving to the New House in the New Land, Meixing Lim has a hard time fitting in and finds solace in a rundown greenhouse that inexplicably holds the sun and moon—and the secrets of her memory and imagination.
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The Dragon Warrior
by Katie Zhao
Training in secret when the Jade Society shuns them for their half-Chinese heritage, 12-year-old Faryn Liu conquers a demon in San Francisco’s Chinatown before resolving to prove herself by finding the gods’ island home before the end of the Lunar New Year.
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Unidentified Suburban Object
by Mike Jung
Fed up with the lack of diversity in her small town and her peers' inclination to credit everything she does well to her Asian heritage, Chloe bonds with a new Korean-American teacher who invites her to explore her family history, with unexpected results.
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Dumpling Days
by Grace Lin
When Pacy, her two sisters, and their parents go to Taiwan to celebrate Grandma's sixtieth birthday, the girls learn a great deal about their heritage.
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The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
by Wendy Wan Long Shang
Aspiring basketball star Lucy Wu is excited about finally having her own bedroom, until she learns that she will have to share a room with her great-aunt for several months, shattering her plans for a perfect sixth-grade year.
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The Magic Fish
by Trung Le Nguyen
Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiâên still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiâên, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through? Is there a way to tell them he's gay?
This title can be found in Teen Graphic Novels
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Six Crimson Cranes
by Elizabeth Lim
The exiled Princess Shiori must unravel the curse that turned her six brothers into cranes, and she is assisted by her spurned betrothed, a capricious dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.
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The Many Meanings of Meilan
by Andrea Wang
A family feud before the start of seventh grade propels Meilan from Boston's Chinatown to rural Ohio, where she must tap into her inner strength and sense of justice to make a new place for herself.
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Tokyo Ever After
by Emiko Jean
Discovering in her senior year of high school that the father she has never met is the Crown Prince of Japan, Izzy is introduced to the realities of being a princess while trying to understand conniving relatives, a hungry press, a handsome bodyguard and thousands of years of tradition.
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From Little Tokyo, with Love
by Sarah Kuhn
Growing up under the care of a loving aunt, an orphaned judo student with a mixed heritage reevaluates her perspectives on happy endings while searching for evidence proving that she is related to a famous rom-com celebrity.
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Luck of the Titanic
by Stacey Lee
Stowing away aboard the Titanic on its ill-fated maiden voyage when her British-Chinese heritage bars her from joining her twin in America, a young acrobat struggles to hide and then survive when the unthinkable happens.
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Idol Gossip
by Alexandra Leigh Young
Offered a spot at the Star Academy, one of the biggest K-pop companies, 17-year-old singer Alice Choy must navigate culture clashes, egos and extreme training practices to come out on top, despite the efforts of an influential blogger trying to tear her down.
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Frankly In Love
by David Yoon
Torn between his love for his white girlfriend and his sense of duty to the matchmaking parents who made hard sacrifices to move to the United States, a Korean American teen and his friend who has a similar problem come up with a scheme to solve both of their problems.
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Shadow of the Fox
by Julie Kagawa
Yumeko, a yokai who has part of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, teams up with Kage Tatsumi, a samurai of the Shadow Clan, promising to take the samurai to the Scroll if he protects her from the army of demons also looking for the Scroll.
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A Place to Belong
by Cynthia Kadohata
Reeling from the treatment they endured in the internment camps of World War II America, a Japanese-American family renounces their American citizenship to move back to Hiroshima, unaware of the devastation inflicted by the atomic bomb.
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American Panda
by Gloria Chao
Struggling with guilt stemming from her parents' cultural expectations about her future as a proper wife and doctor, a 17-year-old Taiwanese-American college freshman hides the truth about her germ phobia and her crush on a Japanese classmate before reconnecting with her brother, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman.
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Forsyth County Public Library | #WeKnowBooks
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